Continued rise in demand for off-road tyre (OTR) products has spurred the Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. (Yokohama) to build another tyre manufacturing plant, this time in Visakhapatnam, southeast Andhra Pradesh, India. Construction on the US$165 million manufacturing plant is set to begin this fall – the plant will span 344,000 sq.-ft. and will produce at least 55 metric tonnes of tyres daily, onwards from the first quarter of 2023.
According to Yokohama, the plant is to be operated by its Indian subsidiary Alliance Tire Group (ATG). ATG already manufactures tyres for use in the agricultural, construction, industrial and forestry machinery industries from plants in Dahej, Gujarat, and Thirunelveli, Tamil Nadu.
The decision to build an entirely new plant follows an expansion project at the Dahej production facility in 2018, which increased ATG’s total capacity by 60%. Once completed, it is expected that the Visakhapatnam plant will raise Yokohama’s overall production capacity for off-road tyres to 480 metric tonnes per day; Yokohama aims to expand this business, which includes ATG as well as group company Aichi Tire Industry’s tyres for industrial machinery.
The new plant will be Yokohama’s 8th OTR tyre plant; in addition to the plants in India, Yokohama operates three off-highway tyre production facilities in Japan, one in Israel and one in Vietnam.